LETTER TO THE EDITOR: My life was saved by New Hope Service

On August 18 I was painting my telephone box which sits on our drive when I experienced something like a cannonball hitting my chest and my arms went dead. I managed to crawl indoors and sit down. When my wife came in she phoned the ambulance service and was told it would arrive in 40 minutes. Well, it must have been my lucky day because they were here in ten minutes.

The crew clipped me up to their machine and I heard one say that it didn’t look good.

Ugh, I thought, the phone box isn’t finished, but no more to time to think — they whipped me in the back of the ambulance, stuck some morphine in me and off we went at great speed to the Northern General Hospital, where they shoved me straight into theatre and promptly cut my t-shirts off. They were worried where all the blood was coming from on my arms and face. I had to whisper to them that it wasn’t blood but Post Office red paint as I had been painting my phone box.

A few seconds went by and I was hooked up to more electronics and cameras for a quick diagnosis and the surgeon informed me they were putting two stents in my heart.

Thankfully it worked out well and I was transferred to the ICU where I received fantastic care for two days before being transferred to Rotherham Coronary Care Unit where once again I received fantastic care before being allowed home two days later.

The point I am making is that I never knew these skilled and kind people before and will probably never meet them again and I owe my life to them.

What a brilliant health service we have and now the NHS to me means New Hope Service.

A massive thanks to all concerned in saving an 80-year-old far from past its life — and maybe I just might get the phone box finished soon.

Mel Roberts, Bramley